Kennedy Space Center Building

NASA Reopens Old Kennedy Space Center Building For New Uses

NASA has reopened giant doors on an old Kennedy Space Center building that constitutes a once and future gateway to the heavens.

A key facility for the Apollo moon missions in the 1960s and 1970s, the Operations and Checkout Building stands poised to take a new lunar mission role as part of the Orion program, part of the next-generation Constellation Program.

Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT] plans to use the 40-year-old building for final assembly and testing of the Orion crew vehicle, which is to be a successor to the space shuttle in taking astronauts beyond the bonds of Earth.

Back in the day of early moon shots, the giant KSC structure was called the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building.

Later, the Operations and Checkout Building was used for testing of Spacelab science modules that flew on space shuttle missions and International Space Station trusses. However, the massive west door wasn’t used and hadn’t been opened for the duration of the shuttle program, until the recent ceremonial opening.